t, but the leather seldom and the contents never.

The German military boot comes half-way up the calf of the leg and the
trouser is tucked into its top. They are without laces and pull on to
the foot like the American "rubber boot." They are made of heavy,
undyed leather, singularly soft and pliable, and thoroughly
waterproof. The soles are shod with hobnails, but the boot is not very
heavy. We often noted dead Germans who were bootless, their footgear
having been appropriated by some victorious Frenchman, who had left
near-by his own less desirable shoes.

The three-compartment wicker shell-containers in which field-gun
shells are carried from caisson to gun are as carefully and neatly
made as an expensive tea-basket. We saw thousands of them lying about
the battlefields and carefully examined scores, sliding shells in and
out of them as a test. Invariably we found that the shells went in and
out smoothly and without effort, and yet always fitted snugly. There
was never either the slightest friction or the least loose-play. This
nicety meant that the variation in an interior diameter of three
inches was certainly less than one thirty-second of an inch.
Wicker-work constructed with such unvarying accuracy is truly
marvelous.

* * * * *

_Paris, Tuesday, September 15th._ Back in Paris, we are trying to
piece bits of evidence together into a clear picture and to draw sound
conclusions from what we have seen. We do not yet know what the battle
which we have studied will be named, but we ourselves call it the
Battle of Fere Champenoise. This is, however, an unsatisfactory title,
as it is too cumbersome and not comprehensive enough, for Fere
Champenoise was only the most intense and critical point in a series
of actions extending from Chantilly to Verdun, over a varied and
winding front of about one hundred and ninety miles. We have no
means of knowing how far the Germans have been driven back, but they
are across the Aisne and other Attaches tell us that frightful
fighting is going on at Soissons where the pursuing Allies are
attempting to throw large forces across the river. On our way home
yesterday, moreover, we ourselves heard much shooting in the direction
of Rheims.

[Illustration: "THE WOODS WERE ... DOTTED WITH THE BODIES OF THE
DEAD"]

My personal conclusions about the battle are based upon a thousand
bits of information carefully pieced together into a mosaic. First of
all